The Bikes

Kit

I split my kit between an S-bag (for the heavy stuff) and a Carradice Longflap Camper bag, which held my sleeping bag and bed roll. This was attached to the seat post via a Carradice SQR block. As a luggage system it worked extremely well, being stable and also easy to attach and detach.

Alastair used two C bag’s, with one fitted to the saddle loops via the method described in the seven league boots blog. This worked ok although to be perfect it could have done with more spacing between the bag and the seatpost, in order to stop the bag hitting one’s legs.

For traveling on the trains, I used an Ikea Dimpa bag and Alastair used a specific Carradice folding bike bag. Both folded up small, enabling them to be transported with us on the bikes.

We took an old Eurohike tent, which was ok, but a specific backpacking tent would have been better since the poles were too long for any of our bags. Sleeping bags, sleeping mats, etc were standard hiking items.

We didn’t take cooking gear, and only a minimum of food, since we weren’t going too far from civilisation. Clothes were mostly merino wool to avoid the need for regular washing 🙂

I got some great, adhoc, shots at the top which I wouldn’t have even thought about taking with a conventional camera. These were great after the event; reminding us of people we met and conversations that we had. The battery lasted for most of the day as well.

Planning

Most of the routes were planned using Google maps and then copied into Strava routes. These could then be used either on our smartphones, or downloaded to my Garmin Edge 200. This was used for most navigation.

We traveled by Eurostar to/ from Paris and from Paris to/from Avignon via TGV. The trains were very comfortable and on time. It’s worth noting that in the summer it is possible to get a Eurostar direct from London to Avignon but it only runs on Saturdays.

I packed everything I’d need for Bromptoux into my bags at the weekend and had a quick test ride to make sure it’s all ok. Seems to be – I have all the heavy stuff in an S-bag on the front, with my sleeping bag and roll mat, plus some lighter stuff, in a Carradice Longflap Camper which is attached to the seatpost using an SQR block. Given that I only weigh 65kg and the maximum rider weight of a Brompton is 100kg then I figure a couple of extra kg hanging from the saddle won’t cause any problems. I’ll probably try and put the tent poles into the S-bag as well for the real trip.

The Brompton is a standard S6L with lowered gearing. Hopefully lowered enough 🙂